Facebook hacker sentenced to 8 months jail time

Twenty-six year-old British software development student Glenn Mangham has been sentenced to eight months of jail time for hacking into Facebook servers several times last year.

The sentence marks an astonishing conclusion to a costly joint investigation by Facebook, the FBI, and Scotland Yard.

Between April 27 and May 9 of 2011, Mangham repeatedly hacked into various Facebook servers. Mangham was arrested in June 2011 and officially charged in August with five counts of computer hacking. The youngster from York later admitted his guilt, but said his actions were intended to help Facebook improve security.

The social network has maintained that members’ personal data was not comprised during the breaches. Ruling Judge Alistair McCreath determined, however, that Mangham’s actions could have been “utterly disastrous” for Facebook.

“You and others who are tempted to act as you did really must understand how serious this is,” McCreath told Mangham, Reuters reported.

When reached for comment, Facebook said that it is pleased with the outcome of the trial.

“We applaud the efforts of the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service in this case, which did not involve any compromise of personal user data,” a Facebook spokesperson told VentureBeat. “We take any attempt to gain unauthorized access to our network very seriously, and we work closely with law enforcement authorities to ensure that offenders are brought to justice.”